


Winter Spirit

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: Canon Era, M/M, mentions religion, talk of different winter holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-28
Updated: 2014-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 04:23:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17196455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: David and Jack take some time to relax together at the beginning of David’s winter vacation.





	Winter Spirit

It was the twenty-second of December. It was snowing outside, puffs of white collecting on the windowsill, somehow managing to look bright and pretty in the dark. Usually Jack thought of snow as being pretty no more than once a season, and that was only if he was feeling generous. It got damn cold in the winter. Sometimes it was so bad that he could see his breath even inside the lodging house. Maybe it was being at David’s house that made everything seem better.

The Jacobs family had a little wood stove. They only lit it up for an hour first thing in the mornings, and when they had company, and David had been roping Jack into being company even more often than usual as a result. The last week or so David had been so worried and irritable about his final exams that he’d barely spoken to Jack, but he’d still insisted that he come over every night.

David had finished his exams that day, and he was happy. The first thing he’d said to Jack when he’d come in had been, “Now I’m going to make you tea,” and Jack couldn’t quite explain it, but David had seemed so pleased with the prospect of boiling water in the teakettle and preparing the drink that it had made Jack feel warm all over, as if watching David cut up bits of fresh ginger was the nicest thing that had happened to him in months. The ginger, the honey, and the recipe had been a gift from one of the women David’s mama worked alongside. Jack ended up having two glasses, but he guessed David was wild about it, because he had three, and Jack had just about never seen him take to any food or drink like that (except for coffee. On one memorable occasion he’d seen David drink enough coffee to make himself ill).

They sat on David’s bed for a few hours, drinking their tea, talking about stuff, and being warm. David had grabbed a small blanket for each of them to throw over their shoulders, kind of like a pair of capes. Beyond the curtain Jack could hear David’s parents discussing politics, his mama’s voice occasionally high and scolding, Mayer’s low but full of passion, and Sarah chiming in just rarely enough that it made whatever she had to say seem extra important. Les was at a friend’s house, which is how Jack got David to himself.

Between the heat, the smell of ginger, the snow outside, and the presence of family, Jack was feeling… Well, he guessed he was feeling Christmasy. It was the season after all. It was just different, because usually he felt like he was on the outside of all that, looking in at stuff he didn’t get to be a part of, while passersby and the papes assured him, until the were blue in the face, that this was the happiest time of the year. And he knew it was downright weird to feel this way when Christmas wasn’t even a thing that David and his family were into, but Jack couldn’t help it.

“You gonna be at the lodge for the shindig on the twenty-fifth,” Jack asked. David had spent at least part of the night ranting about how he was now on vacation for the week because of Christmas, and he’d had to spend Chanukah worried about tests and homework, and how to make his family think that he was enjoying the holiday while not driving himself out of his mind over school, and that made Jack cautious now.

“Shindig?” The corners of David’s mouth perked up into a sort of half smile. “Is that what we’re calling it now?”

“You got a better word for it?”

“I know what Christmas is Jack. I’m allowed to say it too, otherwise I wouldn’t have about twenty times tonight. Hearing you say the word isn’t going to make me disappear in a puff of smoke.”

“Fine,” Jack said, trying to scowl. “Christmas.”

David let out a choked sound, put his hands to his throat, and finished off the performance by flopping back against the headboard as if dead.

“Very funny.” Jack gave David a small shove, and David fell limply onto his shoulder.

“You’re never gonna make it to the stage, Dave,” Jack teased, ruffling David’s. “Dead folks don’t drool all over a guy’s shirt, for one thing.”

David jerked himself upright. “I wasn’t…”

“That ain’t the point Dave. The point is are you coming to the Christmas party or ain’t you? You should come. The other fellas all wanna see you, and it’s the only day all year we don’t gotta work.”

David made a face, and Jack had to bite back a sigh. “Look, we won’t make you sing any carols or nothing, and when they tell you to pray you can just close your eyes and jam your hands together think of… Think of elephants jumping over fences or whatever.”

“Elephants jumping over fences?” David asked. “Elephants? Is that what you were thinking about when we had you over for Chanukah, because I know you couldn’t understand half of what we were saying, but elephants seems like an odd choice to me.”

“I was thinking of you, alright.”

“I honestly don’t know what to say to that.”

“Say that you’ll come to Christmas, and think about me riding and elephant jumping over a fence built by Kid Blink, while Racetrack balances on the tip of the elephant’s nose smoking a cigar.”

“I could come to Christmas and think about that,” David said slowly. “But I can also think of that right here and now from the comfort of my bed, and that seems like a better option.”

Jack didn’t know what to say to that. Usually he didn’t feel bad about goading David into doing things, but he guessed that not doing that about this was just common decency. David picked at a piece of lint on his blanket, while Jack wished that he hadn’t brought up Christmas in the first place.

“I saw an ad from Children’s aid,” David said at length. “Asking for donations for the Christmas party.”

“They does that every year.”

“And it said there were going to be gifts and food. I don’t want them to give me gifts I don’t need, for a holiday I don’t celebrate. Somebody else should get those gifts.”

“Then give yours to Snipe,” Jack said quickly. “Never saw nobody who likes tearing open gifts as much as that kid does. He don’t even much care what’s inside.”

“And the food,” David said. “If I had my mama make something, could I put it on the table… Like at a potluck?”

“Tell her to make latkes. The guys’ll love them,” said Jack, who had never been to a potluck in his life, but was willing to give it a try.

“Nobody will think I shouldn’t be there?”

“You’re a newsie. Anything we do, we want you to be there. Got it?”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you all together,” David said, with a quick nod that settled the matter.


End file.
